According to the Hemp Historian, the first marijuana law in our land was enacted in 1619 in Jamestown mandating that hemp be grown. That should be no surprise, though, since the stuff is so incredibly useful. Do a quick Internet search for hemp products and you’ll find everything from food products to fuel. In fact, Treehugger.com has a list of several ways to use hemp you may not have heard of before in their article, by Matthew McDermott, titled, “Perfect Plant?“
But, if hemp — a plant humans have relied on for centuries — is so useful, why is it illegal (especially since you can puff on it all day and it won’t get you stoned like it’s more-fun sister plant)? The quick answer is money. You see, other products came on the market — like wood pulp and oil — and the companies behind them encouraged the U.S. to ban hemp, a major competitor, spreading ridiculous rumors about its effects. (Read more about why hemp is illegal here and why it rocks here.)
All of this is ridiculous, of course. As SustainableHemp.com points out, “Hemp is one of the most diverse plants on the planet, and could literally supply most of humankind’s needs for fuel, food, clothing, building products, and medicine.”
But let’s drag our feet on legalization legislation, shall we? Let’s continue pretending it’s harmful and that our state couldn’t use the tax revenue it could collect if only it our legislators would stop being so Puritanical. As long as we turn away from all it can do for us, we’ll continue to fuel “Mexican criminal groups,” as the National Drug Intelligence Center puts it, waste money enforcing drug laws and imprisoning people involved in the trade while we continue to deny ourselves realistic alternatives to products that are harmful to us and our planet.
Brilliant.
I don’t know about you, but pot propaganda commercials from the last century crack me up.
This article appears in Aug 31 – Sep 6, 2010.
$113 billion is spent on marijuana every year in the U.S., and because of the federal prohibition *every* dollar of it goes straight into the hands of criminals. Far from preventing people from using marijuana, the prohibition instead creates zero legal supply amid massive and unrelenting demand.
According to the ONDCP, at least sixty percent of Mexican drug cartel money comes from selling marijuana in the U.S., they protect this revenue by brutally torturing, murdering and dismembering countless innocent people.
If we can STOP people using marijuana then we need to do so NOW, but if we can’t then we need to legalize the production and sale of marijuana to adults with after-tax prices set too low for the cartels to match. One way or the other, we have to force the cartels out of the marijuana market and eliminate their highly lucrative marijuana incomes – no business can withstand the loss of sixty percent of its revenue!
To date, the cartels have amassed more than 100,000 “foot soldiers” and operate in 230 U.S. cities, and Arizona police are now conceding that parts of their state are under cartel control. The longer the cartels are allowed to exploit the prohibition the more powerful they’re going to get and the more our own personal security will be put in jeopardy.
Cannabis/Hemp/Marijuana is plant. For the course of human history, its fibers have been used for productive ends, as hemp has tens of thousands of applications. One of which is smoking the substance to change one’s perspective. While this is not for everyone, the activity should not be criminalized.
Prohibition has ruined the lives of GOOD people, while enriching the most evil. Prohibition has stagnated the American economy, while criminal enterprises control this untaxed cash-crop. Prohibition has left America ignorant of the most logical solution to a number of problems…medicinal, industrial, chemical, agricultural, ecological, commercial…
http://www.facebook.com/free.the.leaf